Labour is setting the government’s political agenda

Normally, ministers use the power of government to set the political agenda. But increasingly, Labour is making the weather, in a sign that the Tories are running out of steam after 13 years in office.

Shadow cabinet ministers were first to propose reforms to the NHS – amid the biggest crisis in its 75-year history – and to the welfare system, in order to encourage the long-term sick back into work. Labour frontbenchers tweak Tory tails by making their announcements to right-of-centre think tanks, which used to be policy factories for the Tories.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told Policy Exchange that he will not “pretend the NHS is currently the envy of the world”, because it is “failing patients on a daily basis”. He wants “fundamental change” in primary care: all GPs would become salaried NHS employees, and no longer the “sole gatekeeper”, with patients allowed to self-refer to specialists.